“They’re not natural to Canada, so that would be our best guess,” she said. “If you could remind people to never release animals into the wild, that would be great.”

The caiman is in good shape after being fished out of the water by experts from Reptilia, a reptile zoo in the GTA, according to animal services.

Reptilia manager Cheryl Sheridan said the caiman is native to South and Central America and could “get up to as much as eight feet long” over two decades, but would likely be smaller.

The next step is to find a suitable home for the reptile “so that he can hopefully grow up and hopefully help to educate people maybe on why they’re not the best pets and educate them about the conservation of their species,” Sheridan said.